Warhammer 9th edition – Age of Sigmar – what does this mean for you?

We don’t actually know what Warhammer 9th edition will be right now. We have rumours – quite a mixed bag. We have stories from stores emptying shelves of Warhammer books. There’s the usual doom prophets and knee-jerk reactions, but what does it all mean?

Do you have to abandon your 8th edition rules, army books and armies? No! Like any new edition of a product, while the old is no longer the current, it is still accessible and enjoyable. I am still enjoying playing 8th edition. Some people still play 1st, 2nd, 3rd and beyond. There are whole communities dedicated to these classic eras.

There’s no reason why you cannot continue playing 8th or any edition of Warhammer. Yes, you may be one of the unlucky few that can only play at a GW store or have the misfortune of being part of a group that cannot see the common sense of enjoying what you already have and do, and instead feel obliged to keep updating to the latest incarnation. At the very least, you should be able to keep your old models to be, or act as, something in the new world order. If you collect Bretonnians, you already do this!

What if it is all true and you have to update? Well, you get to look forward to a fresh set of rules (or a rehashing of old), new models (the main pull of this hobby!) and the fun of adapting what you already have to the new format. That does not sound terrible and it’s a worst-case scenario.

You don’t have to bin your existing collection any more than we’ve not been binning our armies for 7 previous editions. Will Games Workshop invalidate their entire Warhammer model range over night? No. No. No way in hell. They’ll rewrite your rules and books, but they are a miniature company – they sell miniatures. They generally don’t shoot themselves in the feet.

What if you do not wish to update? There’s lots of options here:

The most obvious is to stay in, spend no money and keep playing 8th.

Perhaps take the chance to look at other editions and enjoy some classic or nostalgic Warhammer.

Look at other rulesets out there. Mantic’s Kings of War is a near-parallel to Warhammer. It works well and is fun to play.